Middle of the Pack

The Indiana Fever lose to the Las Vegas Aces and the Golden State Valkyries. Chris and Keisha break it down and share there concerns as we settle into this season.

Intro/Outro Music: White Lie by Stream Beats

Episode Transcript

(00:11):
Friends, Fever fans, welcome back to another Fever Replay
podcast, your home for weekly breakdown of Fever games and
news. And as always, this podcast is
brought to you by the love of the game.

(00:31):
Sometimes you lose for the love of the game.
I'm joined today, as I always am, by my undefeatable Co host
Keisha Gallagher. How are you, Keisha?
I'm doing well, Sir. How are you during these trying
times? I'm terrible.
So for those of you W fans who don't know, there's a men's

(00:57):
league OK of basketball I know and they just have the finals,
which I know this is boring to hear about but hold on.
There's an indie team and they were in the finals and it went
to a Game 7 and then our star put his career on the line.

(01:18):
He knew he was hurt, he had a calf injury, he strained his
calf. But he had a great game in spite
of that in Game 6 and brought usto the Game 7 and he still
played and he was incredible. In 92 seconds he scored three,
three pointers, 7 minutes played, nine points.
He was going to lead us to a championship.

(01:39):
And then the worst thing, he tore his Achilles.
So sad. Yeah.
Anyway, that's how I'm doing. Me and the kids are super into
it. We were going joining in on all
the festivities here in Indy. We tried really hard to get in

(02:01):
the watch party at Cambridge, and it was devastating.
I think my son Harrison felt hisfirst sports heartbreak, which
was tough, you know, to witness,but also made me a little proud.
Like, yeah, that's what it's about, son.
It's about those highs and very much those lows that we

(02:23):
experience being a fan of a team.
So, yeah. How was your weekend?
Well, I enjoyed a ton of women'sbasketball.
It was a very interesting week of basketball, a lot of
surprising wins and losses, and I'm excited to talk to you about
it. Good.

(02:45):
I'm excited too. We have two losses to talk about
just off the bat. I'm not going to say the most
devastating losses. I feel like in both of these
games, the opposing teams playedreally well.
It wasn't a thing where like, ahFever shot themselves in the
foot a million times. There were games we were in.

(03:06):
Felt like we got outplayed more or less in the 4th.
But let's get into it. Let's start with a brand new
team, one that not only have we never played, but has never
existed before this season. We're talking about the Golden
State Valkyrie that we lost against.
Yeah. What were your thoughts?

(03:28):
I feel like Golden State is, as you said, it's a new team.
So it's it's comprised of a lot of young talented individuals
who bring a lot of different styles to to the court.
I think we really struggled to figure out how to match up
against them. And it was just little things of
poor shooting performance. Yeah, difficult in match ups.

(03:52):
I don't know, it just it felt like we really struggled to find
any sort of chemistry and the three pointer was just not it.
Yeah, it kind of felt like they steamrolled on us because we
came out early out scoring them big time in the first.
They got a little momentum in the second.

(04:16):
If I felt like coming out of halftime, they really came to
play. They didn't just bring the heat
on offense. They were really finding ways to
stop us on defense, stop our momentum.
I I found myself really impressed with the Golden State
Valkyrie after this game. That was like my main take away.

(04:37):
I was kind of like, oh, when I talk to people about it, they're
like, oh, heard the fever lost and be like, yeah, but that
Valkyrie team, I tell you it looks fantastic.
Like that was my take away and the IT was also cool because,
you know, brand new team, but they had that stadium rocking.
It was cool. Like, you know, we as Fever like

(05:00):
to brag that all of our away games are sold out because we
bring a lot of people. And while that was true, it
seemed like their fans really liked their team, too.
Yeah, they, they are, they are definitely supported and welcome
in Golden State. And it's nice to see that that
was almost immediate, if not as soon as it was announced.

(05:22):
But yeah, I think that this really was a big learning
experience for the Fever. They the turnovers were a bit of
a struggle. Again, the shot selection was
just off and I saw a lot of Golden State's fast breaks
really paying off and didn't really see that happening for
us. No, it felt like momentum wise,

(05:45):
we really kind of ground to a halt there, especially in the
third quarter coming out of half.
It was kind of interesting when you look at the plus minus of
it. We had no one in the positive,
but we did have Kelsey Mitchell and Aaliyah Boston at least at

(06:06):
0, which, you know, in a loss isnot a bad plus minus to have.
Yeah, they both had pretty greatpercentages.
We saw Aaliyah Boston had 63% and Mitchell was shooting 54,
both from the field. One thing that I found really

(06:26):
cool, I was reading about it that over the summer break,
apparently both Lexi Hole and Aaliyah Boston decided to focus
on their finishing. They both felt like they were
lacking and finishing. They went to the same trainer
and that was their entire focus of the summer.

(06:47):
And it's kind of an amazing thing to hear that Aaliyah
Boston felt like her finishing was subpar.
And then she comes in and as faras the beginning of this year,
she's one of, if not the leader in efficiency.
I mean, it's just a cool thing. You rarely see somebody in this
level of competition get to go from like this is a weakness to

(07:09):
this is my strength now. And I would say also for Lexi,
she definitely had AI. Don't know if the a resurgence
in as a threat behind the three-point line is the best way
to describe it necessarily. But isn't she the highest
shooting percentage 3 point shooter?
Yeah, she's number one. She ended the year last year

(07:32):
that way too. I think we've really found, OK,
well, if she's the fourth optionor at least the fourth biggest
threat that a defense is lookingat, then we're going to get her
a lot of open threes. And she seems like ready and
willing to take those shots, no hesitation.
She's letting them fly and they're going in at a pretty

(07:53):
high rate, which is it's great. But anyway, let's move on now to
Las Vegas. The Aces, they had kind of a
fraught year before getting to us with some injuries, but
correct me if I'm wrong. Are they back to full strength
now? They are, and this was This week

(08:16):
is Asia Wilson's first week backfrom concussion protocol and I
feel like she is still an insanethreat at at all levels, but she
definitely was a little rusty, which was to our benefit even
though they still managed to pull out.
AW, she was not hitting, no. It felt like she she shook off
the rust I think during the game.

(08:38):
Yeah. Because I feel like she started
the game a little rusty and it was like, oh, OK, hey, you know,
if this is the Asia Wilson that is coming onto the court, you
know, hey, we might be able to do this.
But it was not Deja Wilson that ended the game.
Both of these last two games we really let off the gas in the

(08:59):
second-half, but specifically ondefense in the fourth quarter.
Yeah, we lost games. We lost those 4th.
Quarters, yeah. Both games we were, we allowed
thirty points, which is not something we've done a lot this
season. In general.
We kind of have been priding ourselves on defense, but the

(09:20):
defense was almost nonexistent to close the Golden State game
as well as this Vegas game. Yeah, and the points again, the
turnovers were not insanely uneven for the the Aces game,
but the amount of points off of turnovers, those are really
killing us, especially with bigsand the speed that that the Aces

(09:43):
have. But it just, yeah, it was, it
was a a battle of the benches just not being on the same same
level, not bringing the same amount of passion or spark off
the bench. Another thing, so like Clark has
been in a three-point shooting slump the last two games really,

(10:07):
which is never too concerning. The three comes and the three
goes, and if you trust in the preparation and the work, I
never mind when high percentage shooters take some shots they're
going to miss. You know, that's not something
that in general, like, concerns me about her play.
But if you look at her plus minus of she was -15 she was the

(10:33):
worst on our team. I don't think that, once again,
plus minus is a very good role-playing stat.
It's an OK starter stat because we lost the game.
So of course, the person playingthe most minutes, it's going to
have a low plus minus. But I do feel like Asia Wilson,
despite the early woes in offense, was doing a great job

(10:54):
of picking up Caitlin Clark. Yeah, honestly, like this type
of game is the one that gets me most excited as a Caitlin Clark
fan because I remember when I first started watching, I first
started getting into it, I'm like this Caitlin Clark chick is
pretty good. And then all throughout last
year, she has this record-breaking rookie season

(11:14):
and it's like, oh man, is she just going to destroy this
league? And the answer is no, she's not.
When you see her going up against the current reigning
MVP, it's just clear that Asia is currently in a different
league than Caitlin, which is like, fine.
It's super exciting. And I think something that a
person, a player like Caitlin like absolutely needs to see and

(11:38):
sees this. I don't doubt for a second
Caitlin's motivation to train and get better, but something
like yesterday is something thatif you're like a alpha
competitive mindset person, you're going to see a game where
Asia Wilson shuts you down and be like, I can't have that
continue to happen. Like that's going to be

(11:59):
something that's like stuck in your head, like, yeah, she's
better than me. I'm going to get there.
When we get there, I'm going to do whatever it takes to make
sure that she can't do that to me anymore.
And like, that gets me really pumped.
Really excited to watch that happen.
It doesn't get me pumped that welost and the Asia's on the other
team. It doesn't get me pumped that we

(12:24):
lost. Yeah, it was.
It was unfortunate, especially Ithink there was this hope and
this energy that fever fans werefeeling after playing New York
and the energy from Connecticut,all the hype that there, this
was kind of going to pull them through easy victories through

(12:45):
this week, especially because the Aces appeared to have been
struggling and the Valkyrie kindof have been having hot and cold
games. But yeah, I think there's a lot
to learn here, definitely. And.
In general, I don't know, I'm, I'm interested to hear what you
think about this, but I, I'm notblaming everything on the Sun

(13:05):
game. But in general, in my experience
as a sports fan, after high emotion games like that that
weren't as much focused on the sport and more on kind of, you
know, all of the exterior stuff,all of the little fights and the
chippiness and the emotions. There's kind of a let down after

(13:28):
that. You'd think it would build into
emotion, but it doesn't. Like I think when you're back
and you're looking at film and stuff, you're like, oh, well, we
could have done a lot better. And we we let them get in our
heads like what, what, why did we do that?
You know, like I have rarely seen something like that lead to

(13:50):
stacking days. We're like a a huge team.
When were you executed the plan you wanted to do?
It was tough, but you dug in. That definitely leads to success
down the road. I don't know.
What are your thoughts on that? No, I think, I think that's a
good point. I, I know that the type of

(14:11):
energy you have after you have marked those boxes, those those
goals during a game is definitely easier to build off
of versus some sort of drama or chaos that has nothing to do
with basketball itself. It can be very training.
It can pull focus from what's important.

(14:34):
I'm sure that can be very detrimental to your mindset.
So true. What are your concerns?
We've just had these two losses.It's not the end of the world,
but our record isn't stellar. Certainly we're right in the
middle of the pack. We're playing somebody that was
right under us. So now I think we're tied.

(14:55):
If the season were to end, they have the tiebreaker on us.
Not a great place to be sitting,but still.
What are your kind of concerns for the Fever right now, having
seen a good a good amount of games?
I'd say especially with the lastcouple games, it's how we
respond to struggle. I feel.

(15:17):
I feel like what we've proven todo is continue to have turnover
issues when turnovers are a problem and then the problems
that we can sometimes experiencewhen we are missing threes or we
aren't getting the shots that wewant.
Who's going to step up and become a leader and who's going
to start scoring if Kelsey Mitchell still getting 20 plus

(15:39):
points, but it's not enough. There has to be other names that
step up when you're traditional shooters aren't landing those
shots. Yeah, definitely.
I felt like watching just these last two games, we both times
had an issue with generating shots when we didn't have
momentum, whether it was the people coming off the bench or

(16:03):
even the starters. If we were in a rut.
It was kind of like, what do we,what do we do now?
We were doing a lot of ISO whichlike it sometimes works, but
then what did it generate after that?
Like where's the mismatch now? Like how what is the defense
thinking that they're going to do?

(16:24):
Like, oh, they can just stay home and hopefully win the ISO
again. You know, that was frustrating
to watch for sure. One of my biggest concerns is
the ability to close games because both of these games we
were in it at half. And we know as the season gets
on, as the games get more important, good teams are never

(16:45):
going to just go away. You have to put them away.
And these were two good teams that we didn't even come close.
It just kind of the lead was building, building, building.
We didn't like stop trying, but we weren't like, OK, let's
buckle down, let's get back to our defense and let's, you know,

(17:08):
get our own runs going. I didn't, I didn't see that.
I didn't see it in either 1. And that's something we have
done this year. So it's not like, oh, we're
incapable, but it's considered what I saw and these two were
concerning to me. Yeah, I agree.
Something to build on for sure. And another really, I don't

(17:28):
know. This is interesting.
I saw a shot. Caitlin Clark shot chart and
basically the article was talking about how Caitlin Clark
has a right side shooting problem, which this chart does
seem to suggest. So I'm looking at it here.

(17:49):
She's 40% from her spot on the left.
We all know that's where she's crazy good, 41% from the top and
then on the right she's 21, which is a huge drop off.
You could say stats aren't everything, percentages aren't
everything, but when you see twice as bad from that side and

(18:12):
then that got me thinking in general when I'm watching, and
this isn't always the case for sure, but that tends to be the
side where she starts the pick and rolls from.
And I'm hoping that we can work on that on our offense, like and
not making it. Hopefully.
I don't think teams have completely clued in on that.

(18:34):
I feel like she hasn't really had like a absolutely horrible
game lately. Like I said, her three-point
shot is dry. She had a double double last
game. But that could become a problem
if we're getting too predictable.
Like on the left she's going to shoot, on the right, she's going
to play make. That sounds very dangerous to

(18:55):
me. Not something I'm, like I said,
concerned that they can't fix that Caitlin can't figure out to
make sure that that's not becoming predictable, but is a
little concerning. Yeah, I.
Think and I think that that's a nerve that can get exposed
throughout the season, especially if other shooters are
not hitting. It can be something that will
continue to get picked at and itcan cause frustration for her.

(19:18):
I mean one good. Thing is, Kelsey Mitchell hits
from there all the time. So that's.
Nice. Kelsey Mitchell.
I'm Sung KIRO, Kelsey Mitchell. Yeah.
Not. Here.
No, we sing that. Song all the time.
No, not, not. Not us, not between close
friends, but she needs to have, she needs to have some sort of
flag or something. People need to be talking about

(19:40):
her more all day long. I would love to hear Kelsey
Mitchell's name spoken, and I'm not even just talking about
sports. I would prefer if on a given
day, throughout my day, people just refer to Kelsey Mitchell.
That'll be great. Like my boss, be like Chris.
I looked at your numbers. You seem like a real Kelsey
Mitchell out there. Whoa, big spots.

(20:00):
What a compliment, yeah. What a compliment.
OK Keisha, so we have a busy week at games, we have a busy
week. We have a back-to-back, but we
also have almost a week off after that.
So tell us, give us the Keisha scouting report, the KSP.

(20:23):
If you will, yeah. So starting off with a pretty
dangerous team, we have the Storm who have been really
taking taking shots and taking down some pretty aggressive
opponents out there. Big names to look out for would
be Skyler Diggins as the Magba Gore.

(20:44):
Not sure if you've heard of thisname.
Anyone familiar with Erica Wheeler who's having an
incredible season in Seattle? I think it made.
E Wheezy. And Deca Aguma ke who's just I
mean, every season is just a threat and off the bench.
I just want to say I'm really. Glad that Wheeler's having such
a great year. She was great and just not a

(21:06):
good fit for our team. Yeah, for sure not a good fit,
but like really grateful for herand she's clearly skilled and
super excited to see her doing well.
Yeah, she's. She's doing great in Seattle.
And then just some other optionsthat we would have to deal with
would be Gabby Williams, who's athreat, Alicia Clark off the

(21:28):
bench can get really hot behind a three.
And then again, Don Malonga, the66 center from France who can
dunk, has not yet but can do something, something to noodle
on. She's 19.
No big deal. I'm not worried.
But following Seattle, we then have the Sparks.

(21:49):
So for the Sparks, they are having a bit of a tough season
themselves when it comes to injuries and getting used to a
newer team. But they do have some pretty
talented folks over there, including Azari Stevens.
You have Latu King, who's the rookie from Notre Dame, another
Notre Dame phenom, Rookia Jackson, Dereka Hamby and from

(22:14):
Lucky. Lucky for us, Cameron Brink has
still not come come back 100%, but she is on the horizon.
So far she is is saying she willnot be ready for the fever, but
that's a that's a fast young Oh,but we're thinking she'll be.
Ready soon? She'll be ready soon.
Like the up the. Upcoming weeks, we think she'll

(22:35):
be ready. She should.
Be she should be back by the endof this month for sure.
Oh, I don't know what her minuterestrictions will look like, but
Cameron Brink will be back, baby.
And she was the she was leading in blocks for a long time last
season while she wasn't even playing.
So she was incredible. Right up until she got hurt,
yeah. Devastating for her, but happy

(22:56):
that she has been taking her time to heal and come back.
Lucky for her, she won't be. She won't be playing, but I mean
our final opponent. Nothing, nothing to to to ease
into the end of the week. We have the wings you mentioned,
Kelsey. Plum, I did.
Yeah. And Kelsey Plum.
Yeah, I did. She's pretty good.
She's pretty good basketball. I mean, the, the with, with our

(23:19):
luck right now, the, the sparks will continue to kind of
struggle as they're working through new positions.
Raybrell's been injured, other other, some other injuries have
been impacting them. So they've been trying to find
their own flow. So hopefully that's still a
struggle, but that brings you tothe wings for that final game.
And with the new rookie, everyone can't stop talking

(23:42):
about page buckets. That name alone is gonna draw a
lot of attention for this match up.
I know. But don't forget you have just a
few phenoms out there, includingEnrique, Dejanay, Carrington.
And don't forget, this is where Melissa Smith landed with the

(24:03):
Wing, so she's very familiar with what the Fever are bringing
to the table. We're probably going to hear a
lot I would expect about CaitlinClark and Paige.
Yeah, I'm sure you will. I'm sure there's going to be a
lot of a lot of charts and graphs and things to point out,

(24:26):
all types of fun details. But I'm just excited to see how
they play because despite what everyone is going to say,
they're very different. They play the position
differently, They have differentfocuses.
They're they're looking to do different things when they have
a ball. But of course, it's just going
to be who's can hit the deepest three, who has the craziest
assist. But I'm excited to see how they

(24:47):
match up if they end up coveringeach other, which I mean, come
on, give the people what? They want absolutely.
Well, Speaking of giving the people what they want, it's time
to end the podcast well. Dark.
No, but thank you, Keisha for that.

(25:07):
I appreciate it. And thank you everyone for
joining us for another Fever Replay podcast.
Hopefully you're all having a good week.
If you're here in Indy, my heartgoes out to you if you're having
it's tough a week as we are herein the Court House, but
hopefully we have a great week of Fever basketball ahead of us.

(25:29):
So thank you and we'll see you next time on the Fever Replay
podcast. Bye.